Friday, July 12, 2013

For the coming UN Open-Ended Working Group on Aging, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has prepared a compilation of all international legal documents addressing the situation of older persons.

Here is the compilation:

Open-ended Working
Group on Ageing

Fourth
working session

12-15 August 2013

Compilation of existing international legal
instruments, documents and programmes that directly or indirectly address the
situation of older persons, including those of conferences, summits, meetings
or international or regional seminars convened by the United Nations and
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations

This compilation has been
prepared by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, pursuant
paragraph 4 of General Assembly Resolution 67/139, which requested “the
Secretary-General, with the support of the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights, the Division for Social Policy and Development
of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat and the
United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
(UN-Women), to submit to the Working Group by its fourth session and from
within existing resources a compilation of existing international legal
instruments, documents and programmes that directly or indirectly address the
situation of older persons, including those of conferences, summits, meetings
or international or regional seminars convened by the United Nations and
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations”.

International
Human Rights Treaties

Instruments dedicated
to the human rights of older persons:

None

Explicit provisions
on the human rights of older persons contained in the International Bill of
Human Rights (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights and their respective Optional Protocols):

None

International human
rights treaties containing a general prohibition of discrimination on the basis
of age

International Convention on the Protection
of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, Article 7:

States Parties undertake, in accordance with
the international instruments concerning human rights, to respect and to ensure
to all migrant workers and members of their families within their territory or
subject to their jurisdiction the rights provided for in the present Convention
without distinction of any kind such as to sex, race, colour, language,
religion or conviction, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social
origin, nationality, age, economic position, property, marital status, birth or
other status.

Other explicit
provisions in human rights treaties explicitly addressing age and older
persons:

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination against Women, Article 11

1. States Parties shall take all appropriate
measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of employment
in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, the same rights,
in particular:

(e) The right to social security,
particularly in cases of retirement, unemployment, sickness, invalidity and old age and other incapacity to work,
as well as the right to paid leave;

Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities

Article 13 - Access to justice

1. States Parties shall ensure effective
access to justice for persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others,
including through the provision of procedural and age-appropriate accommodations, in order to facilitate their
effective role as direct and indirect participants, including as witnesses, in
all legal proceedings, including at investigative and other preliminary stages.

Article 16 - Freedom from exploitation,
violence and abuse

2. States Parties shall also take all
appropriate measures to prevent all forms of exploitation, violence and abuse
by ensuring, inter alia, appropriate forms of gender- and age-sensitive
assistance and support for persons with disabilities and their families and
caregivers, including through the provision of information and education on how
to avoid, recognize and report instances of exploitation, violence and abuse.
States Parties shall ensure that protection
services are age-, gender- and disability-sensitive.

Article 25 – Health

States Parties recognize that persons with
disabilities have the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard
of health without discrimination on the basis of disability. States Parties
shall take all appropriate measures to ensure access for persons with disabilities
to health services that are gender-sensitive, including health-related
rehabilitation. In particular, States Parties shall:

(b) Provide those health services needed by
persons with disabilities specifically because of their disabilities, including
early identification and intervention as appropriate, and services designed to
minimize and prevent further disabilities, including among children and older persons;

Article 28 - Adequate standard of living and
social protection

2. States Parties recognize the right of
persons with disabilities to social protection and to the enjoyment of that
right without discrimination on the basis of disability, and shall take
appropriate steps to safeguard and promote the realization of this right,
including measures:

(b) To ensure access by persons with
disabilities, in particular women and girls with disabilities and older persons with disabilities, to
social protection programmes and poverty reduction programmes.

General comments
and recommendations by UN treaty bodies

Treaty Body General
Recommendations and General Comments

CESCR General Comment No. 6, The economic,
social and cultural rights of older persons, 12/08/1995

Thematic study on the realization of the
right to health of older persons by the Special Rapporteur
on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of
physical and mental health, Anand Grover, 4 July 2011, A/HR C/18/37 (the right
to health of older persons)

Organization of
American States General Assembly Resolution AG/RES. 2654 (XLI-O/11) Protecting
the Human Rights of Older Persons, adopted at the four the plenary session of
the forty-first General Assembly, 7
June 2011

Report on the Situation of Older persons in the
Hemisphere and the Effectiveness of Binding Universal and Regional Human Rights
Instruments with Regards to Protection of the Human Rights of Older Persons;
December 5, 2011); OEA/Ser.G; CAJP/GT/DHPM-14/11 rev. 1

http://www.oas.org/consejo/cajp/human%20rights.asp#Older
Persons

Council of Europe

Steering Committee for
Human Rights (CDDH), Drafting Group on the Human Rights of the Elderly
(CDDH-AGE) documents and reports

Council of
Europe Recommendation R(99)4 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on
Principles Concerning the Legal Protection of Incapable Adults (adopted on 23
February 1999) (“Recommendation R(99)4”)

The Rights of
Elderly Persons under the European Social Charter, Draft Information Document drawn up by the Secretariat of the
Council of Europe, Department of the European Social Charter, March- April 2011

Recommendation
CM/Rec(2009)6 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on ageing and
disability in the 21st century: sustainable frameworks
to enable greater quality of life in an inclusive society; Reply from the
Committee of Ministers to the Parliamentary Assembly on “Challenges of social
policy in Europe’s ageing societies”